Students’ motivation at the university level (an essay based on experience of foreign language teaching)

The essay is based on the personal experience of the author. The theme of motivation of university students is explored on the example of Czech universities. The important role of motivation in the teaching/learning process is stressed and a decline of students' motivation to get excellent results is stated. The author speaks about three factors which play in this process a decisive role. Factor No. 1: The students do not believe that the knowledge is the main precondition for a successful career. Secondly it is the system “student-is-client” which transfers the responsibility for the results of the teaching/learning process to the teacher who turns into provider. Finally, it is the too high number of universities which are pressed to compete in collecting money by raising the number of students as high as possible. This fact changes the position of students in the system substantially, too. A role play also ceaseless “innovative” changes and various projects going on all the time and bringing some times rather disturbances then an improvement of the system. All these factors contribute to a decline of motivation on both sides - teachers and students begin to mistrust each other to a certain extent, and the results of the teaching/learning process get worse.